...Pandas are also some of the most beautiful coins in my opinion. Which will always help demand in the future.
Opinions are nice, but try researching your opinions before you go too heavy into putting them in action. That's what every youtube or printed review of a coin or basically every post in this thread is: simply an opinion. You know what they say about opinions: "opinions are like ... ; everyone's got one, and they all stink."
...at the end of the day,
gold is gold and silver is silver. You are only guaranteed the face value or spot value, nothing more. Personally, I might pay 5-10% premium over spot for increased liquidity of a govt coin or for something I really like the look of, but the premium ("numi") value is hardly ever recouped. Often, the premium is nearly all lost. Most dealers simply buy coins brought to them for 90-100% spot, possibly a hare more for govt coins in a good market. eBay might get you a bit over spot price, but then you pay 13% plus insured shipping (and still have the chance of buyer claiming scam and that they never received coins).
I always suggest people try selling coins before they do a lot of buying. You don't have to go through with the sales, but at least test the market well. When you sell your stack, rounds are rounds and govt issue might be rounds + 3%. More likely, govt issue are valued the same as rounds... but with better chance the shop or ebay ppl will want to buy them at all. The govt minting vs private mint just seems to add in a tiny bit of buyer trust. Govt issues will likely sell easily nearly all of the time (esp in their native country), but rounds and foreign coins are only easy and quick sells in a hot market. That's just a fact...
[Pandas are] good to stack IF the price is right. With 10 million of these bad boys being minted, I highly doubt you’ll see substantial premiums over the longer term. They’ll do okay, but not great...
Exactly, but don't forget they are 30grams also. If you want to make money, then buy rounds at or near spot. If you want good liquidity and to hopefully make money, buy any major govt coin that is on best sale (ASE, philharm, kanga, maple, lib, brit, panda, etc etc).
It is key to remember than
silver and gold pandas are 30grams and not 1ounce aka 31.1gram of the precious metal like the rest of govt coins... that often does matter to their value on the back end. It needs to be taken into account, especially when making an offer on a large quantity. For me, maples are usually the cheapest govt minted coins in USA... but I will take any govt coin that people are selling cheaply or accepting my eBay offers on. I generally do find pandas to be the most problematic because of the different weight, though - for both buying or selling.
...If you want pretty coins, then you can obviously buy whatever you want. Just remember what a huge marketing industry numi coins are ("limited edition," "anniversary," "gem mint," "privy," "first strike," etc etc). You need to consider that those are the main money makers for the mints (and therefore the main money losers for buyers). Small fortunes go into advertising these coins, giving people free ones to make a youtube "review" about them, coming up with clever marketing ideas, etc. I'm not saying that's necessarily a deal breaker, but to think that because a coin is good looking or low mintage or blah blah will mean it holds or gains on the premium you pay over spot is foolish. Again, try being a seller and find out for yourself. GL